Summary
Republican senators are preparing for a contentious confirmation process for Matt Gaetz, Donald Trump’s surprise pick for Attorney General, due to his past controversies and ongoing questions surrounding a House Ethics Committee investigation into alleged misconduct.
Gaetz resigned from Congress just before the Ethics Committee was set to release a potentially damaging report, raising concerns about his fitness for the role.
Some GOP senators, including Judiciary Committee members, have requested details of the investigation, while others express skepticism about his qualifications and political baggage.
Gaetz has started lobbying GOP senators, but faces a challenging path to confirmation.
The best explanation I’ve seen is that this was a calculated pick to distract and lower the bar for Trump’s eventual real nominee (Paxton?), allowing the Senate and public to swallow someone who will still enable the DOJ as Trump’s own personal vengeance law firm. It is also again Trump nonsense taking up all the oxygen, preventing debate over his other extremely problematic picks like Tulsi Gabbard.
It gave Gaetz cover to resign and prevent his ethics probe from being public, and if this theory is correct, he’ll withdraw from consideration before any of that information is made public. Mission(s) accomplished.
I think you’re giving them way too much credit
Sadly I think you’re underestimating them. If a random Lemmy person can throw out a plausible theory, there no way that it’s not already considered. The GOP may be fascists, but there are some calculating people moving pieces around.
I trust “random Lemmy person” to have more brains than the GOP
Yeah, I mean, obviously this is not a 4D-chess move. Trump acts instinctively but he’s had a lifetime of narcissistic manipulation informing that instinct. Gaetz would already have been looking for ways to maximize his visibility while skirting the investigation, Stephen Miller probably could have contributed the “trigger the libs and deep state at first, and make it seems like they get a win once they’ve got it out of their system” part.
Everyone around Trump is self-interested evil in their own way and I could see how it works together pretty well.